One Part Coffee, One Part Soda, Mix in Some Marketing Muscle . . . : Starbucks and Pepsi test Mazagran, their new ‘sparkling’ coffee, on Westside consumers.

When it comes to trend-setting, it’s tough to surpass the Westside, where residents show an inordinate tendency toward dropping a few bucks on a cappuccino.

That’s why Starbucks Coffee and Pepsi have chosen the Santa Monica area to test market their latest shiny-new product--coffee soda.

Sleek bottles of chilled, “sparkling” coffee hit about 40 markets, delis and restaurants in the area last month.

But the sweetened beverage, called Mazagran, has perked the curiosity of some and left others, even in this coastal hip-land, grimacing.

“It’s so weird,” said Jaleh Yermian, 40, who sampled a newly-in-stock bottle at her family’s Greek cafe on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. Yermian, who likes her coffee strong, said she and her 11-year-old son each tried one sip--and then poured out the rest.

Down the open-air mall at an English pub, 27-year-old manager Helena Wichman said she finished a bottle but only after adding a swig of liquor.

“It’s bound to sell well because people want to try it,” Wichman said, “but after they try it, I don’t think they’ll want to have it again.”

About half of those interviewed who had tried Mazagran said they didn’t like it, but executives marketing the drink are optimistic that local sales to coffee-drinking experimenters in the coming months will prove it worthy of nationwide distribution.

“Once the stuff gets on the Pepsi trucks, the power of distribution kicks in,” said Ann Glover, the partnership’s general manager who is in charge of marketing the beverage.

Locals who tasted the foaming drink on tap at some Santa Monica Starbucks stores and in free-sample cups around town have responded favorably, Glover said, with comment cards collected since April reflecting positive responses 70% of the time.

At a farmers market on Arizona Avenue, two salespeople offered free samples, dispensing the pre-mixed drink from back-mounted cylinders into cups. They called out to passersby carrying bags of organic produce, pushing strollers and gliding through the hot crowds on in-line skates.

“New and exciting,” called out Starbucks sprayer Duke Lee. “It’s non-dairy, nonfat, no preservatives.”

But that sugar brings the calorie count up to 110.

Many said they liked it, or said it might grow on them, and only two said “Nasty!” as they walked toward a trash can with the cup.

“Wow!” exclaimed shopper Pam Pletz, who was carrying a bag of sunflowers. “It’s good. It’s almost too unusual.”

The new marketing effort capitalizes on the ‘90s coffee craze that has allowed Starbucks to expand to more than 625 locations in the United States and Canada. And the two-tailed mermaid’s face that graces coffee-drinking locales from mini-malls to airports stares peacefully at customers from the bottle’s side.

Coffee mixed with mineral water, advertising propaganda claims, was “first enjoyed by regulars in the French Foreign Legion 150 years ago” in the Algerian city of Mazagran. The name appears in Tarzan-like block letters on the slender green glass bottles, perhaps aiming to evoke an adventurous feeling among consumers.

In some stores, the bottles are sold individually and in four-packs out of squat, glass-doored refrigerators bearing the Starbucks logo and swirls of gray dots denoting bubbles. Glover said the display cooler was selected to differentiate the Starbucks product from the ranks of iced teas and other new-wave beverages that have stormed the market in recent years.

The refrigerator has already attracted at least a little attention at a small market on Main Street, where register clerks said they sold four cases in the first week to store browsers.

On a visit to the store, 22-year-old Gibran Evans, sunglasses perched on his forehead, stopped and eyed the cooler. The graphic designer hadn’t tried the new beverage yet but said he might sometime soon.

“Sounds like a very strange combination,” he said. “Definitely catches my eyes.”